A note from Thrive's founder, Dr. Erica Wollerman: Welcome to our latest blog series! Since I am often the one writing our Thrive blogs, I wanted to make sure that our readers would be able to also get to know the amazing team I work with at Thrive. I am so grateful to work with each of these therapists and they each offer our clients something special. Since we have a team of 6, we will be sharing these blogs over the coming summer weeks! ​

​Tell us about you and why you wanted to become a therapist. From a very early age I knew I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. Growing up with a mother who was a nurse and an uncle who was a firefighter, I saw how impactful being there for someone in their most vulnerable state could be. And I knew I wanted to find a way to do this too. This desire led me to obtaining my doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Through my education and professional experiences I developed a great passion for working with adolescents, their parents, and adults.

What do you love about being a therapist? Being a therapist brings me so much joy. I get to connect with individuals from all walks of life and see the world through their lens. It is a pleasure working alongside my clients, supporting, guiding, and rooting them on as they brave the challenges life can sometimes bring. My clients are as much my teachers as I am theirs. My clients never cease to amaze and inspire me with their strength, courage, and resilience.

How would you describe yourself as a therapist? It is important to me that each client feels they have a safe space where they can speak freely about their thoughts and feelings, where they feel heard and understood without judgment. I hold that space for my clients and meet them where they are with an open mind and heart. I believe the therapeutic relationship is similar to being teammates. I am on my client’s team; I walk alongside them in their journey. I support, challenge, encourage, and empower my clients to make the changes they want to make.

Who do you love working with in therapy? I love my work with children, adolescents, adults, and parents. I particularly enjoy working with adolescents, as well as adults going through a life transition. Areas of focus include, but are not limited to: ADHD, Anxiety, Depression, Behavioral Issues, Parenting, Life Transitions, Racial Identity, Relationship Issues, and Women's Issues.

Do you have a particular theory or framework that guides your work as a therapist? If so, describe it and tell us why you use that. My approach looks to help my clients become more understanding, accepting and compassionate in dealing with themselves and those they love. I incorporate evidence-based approaches that best fit the needs of each client. I integrate various frameworks including, family systems, cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and acceptance and commitment therapy.

Share one thing you are passionate about in your professional or personal life. Although I love being a therapist, my biggest passion is being a mom. I enjoy spending time with my family outdoors taking advantage of the beautiful city we live in! I also love photography and enjoy shooting nature and architecture

A note from Thrive's founder, Dr. Erica Wollerman: Welcome to our latest blog series! Since I am often the one writing our Thrive blogs, I wanted to make sure that our readers would be able to also get to know the amazing team I work with at Thrive. I am so grateful to work with each of these therapists and they each offer our clients something special. Since we have a team of 6, we will be sharing these blogs over the coming summer weeks!

​Tell us about you and why you wanted to become a therapist. My name is Lauren and I am excited to be a therapist at Thrive Therapy Studio! I knew I wanted to become a therapist from a very young age. My interest was sparked as I was growing up with my brother and learned of his diagnosis of autism and anxiety. Since then, I have become increasingly interested in what made my brother different and his various methods of coping and treatment. I was always so intrigued with what went on behind closed doors when he was with his therapist. It was incredible to see the positive impact that therapy had on him, and I was inspired to help others in the same way.

What do you love about being a therapist? I absolutely love being a therapist; it fills me with so much joy and gratitude! This career is designed to improve individuals quality of life, and I cannot think of anything more rewarding. I love that I get to do work that is meaningful and transformative for others, while simultaneously supporting and facilitating my own personal growth. I feel so privileged to be part of their journey as I watch my clients grow and share in their obstacles and successes. Their strength and resilience is truly inspiring.

How would you describe yourself as a therapist? I am supportive, empathic, engaging and collaborative. I utilize warmth and authenticity to create a non-judgmental environment. I help clients create a toolbox of skills to use in times of distress, and provide a safe environment for self-exploration and growth. I am here to challenge, support, and empower my clients!

Who do you love working with in therapy? I absolutely love working with all ages, and have experience doing therapy with individuals from age 5 to 75! It is so exciting for me to watch people at all stages of life change, heal, grow, and achieve their goals. My areas of specialization include anxiety, depression, trauma, life transitions, substance use, relationship issues, school/work issues, social skills, self-esteem, stress, and overall self-growth.

Do you have a particular theory or framework that guides your work as a therapist? If so, describe it and tell us why you use that. Because every individual is unique, I utilize various evidence based modalities of therapy customized to meet my clients needs. My therapeutic approach is integrative, as I blend elements from different frameworks, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, trauma-focused therapy, motivational interviewing, and mindfulness-based interventions.

Share one thing you are passionate about in your professional or personal life. I am extremely passionate about traveling; I have visited 25 countries! Some of my favorites include Iceland, Morocco, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Norway and Cambodia. It is fascinating to explore various cultures, meet new people, and immerse myself in completely different environments. Through my travels, I have discovered a lot about myself and I am excited to continue to explore new places!

By: Dr. Erica Wollerman

As a therapist who specializes in working with kids, teens, parents, and families, I have noticed a growing and very concerning trend in my work. So many of the kids, teens, and even young adults that I work with are struggling with anxiety, crippling perfectionism, and so much self doubt that they struggle to do things they desperately want to be doing. At the root of so much of this are feelings of incompetence and a huge fear of failure.

I have been contemplating this challenge and recent parenting trends and have noticed that this happens more in the families I work with where parents seem to be struggling to let their kids deal with things on their own. Unfortunately, these parents get kind of a bad rap as “helicopter” parents when in fact, they are parents who are simply struggling to know when it is appropriate to let their kid/teen/young adult fail or struggle through something. And the root of this struggle is usually so much love for their little one (who may not be so little anymore) as well as overwhelming fear about what might happen for their kid/teen/young adult if they do not participate so heavily in their lives.

This fear is one most parents know well. What if they don’t get into a good college? What if they make choices that screw up their whole life? What if they do something I can’t help them undo? What if they can’t get a good job? And the list just goes on and on. As a result (I believe), we are overdoing it in the parenting department. We are rescuing our kids way too much and then we come to find that our kids seem to need to be rescued. Weird huh.

When you look at what happens and what a person will think if they are being rescued from situations, it starts to make sense. When we rescue a person from a situation that they are either capable of handling on their own or almost capable of handling on their own, the message we are giving them is not one of their own ability but one of their need for us to handle things for them. We teach them that they need us and that they can’t do these things on their own. We teach them to ask for help before they need it, before problem solving on their own, and to at all costs avoid struggling with something.

Instead, we need to give our kids the following kinds of messages by verbalizing them as well as by our actions in letting them handle most problems on their own:

“I know you are struggling but you are also resourceful and able to figure things out on your own”

“I’m here to help but I can’t solve this problem for you”

“I have faith that you can figure this out”

“No matter what happens, we will figure this out together but you need to take some steps at solving the problem first”

“I know it’s hard, but you can do hard things”

I could go on and on but I won’t. The point is that we definitely need to help when it is needed. But we are so often confused about when it is needed that we are rescuing way too often, which is not helping our kids/teens/young adults develop into the independent and capable people that we know they are meant to be. I encourage you to trust yourself as a parent and trust your “little one,” however old they may be, that they can figure things out and will benefit from a little struggle and failure along the way. Just like most of us did on our way to becoming independent adults.

At Thrive, we take a positive, client centered approach to therapy that is focused on creating a genuine connection with our clients. If you would like to talk with a Thrive Therapist about yourself, your child, or teen attending therapy, please reach out to us by phone at 858-342-1304. As always, thanks for reading and comments are always welcome regarding any issues around child or teen psychotherapy services in San Diego by Thrive Therapy Studio. To stay in the loop on the services offered and to receive updated information about Thrive, please feel free to sign up for the newsletter through the following link: http://eepurl.com/cvGx5n.